A Florida man is a bit hacked off with the Bank of America after it refused to cash a cheque made out to his missus unless he provided a thumbprint - a slight impediment to the transaction, because he has no arms.
Steve Valdez, 54, explained to the Today show yesterday that he went to his wife's branch, but "teller and branch …

See, this is why you need an ID card

Commerce.

So he can open his own account and pay the check (sic) in. So, basically, the bank get another customer. Brilliant. Nothing to do with policies or prejudisms against people with no arms, as such. Just another (and somewhat insensitive) way of getting more custom.

The Bank Of America is showing its true colors (sic) there - predominantly green.

I suggest Mrs Valdez move her bank account to somewhere more accommodating.

corporate tick-list mentality

It seems that more and more local/ branch/ regional managers are becoming nothing more than glorified cashiers, since they are not being allowed to exercise any local judgement. I'll charitably assume that the bank manager her-/him- self would personally not have had a problem with the two forms of ID, but had to follow Procedure lest s/he get a shitload from higher up the food chain. Also, remember that BofA (and chain banks in general, I'll wager) takes great glee in charging fees every time one turns around, presumably to prop up an otherwise sagging bottom line as customers flee to credit unions, local banks, and other institutions that treat customers like people and not like inventory.

Umm...

Special needs or special wants?

He would rather play on others' sympathies toward his handicap to cash a check, which isn't in his name, than face a two-day hold at his own bank? The policy at Bank Of America may seem a bit on the ridiculous side concerning the requirement of a thumb-print, but it seems Valdez needs to realize that the world does not revolve around him.

Bank of America - not MY America, thank you

Typical Bank of America crap. They are without a doubt the most evil, foulest bank in the known universe. BofA isn't about banking or customer service, never has been - it is all about mergers and acquisitions - customers are a nuisance to them. Should you need a US bank, talk to any one of several hundred smaller regional banks where you are a person, not just a number.

Bank of A...

Insert humorous A word. Yep, they're this stupid. Why I used to bank there.

My savings account slowly kept getting lower and lower interest, so I pulled it out to go with the competition. As I was getting the draft check, the teller asked my why I was leaving. I replied that the service was kind of lax and the interest was poor. She told me that they could up the interest rate, and that I'd only had to ask for a better account. My reply was that it was a little too late as I'd already opened the other account. I checked with other customers and found that BOA basically creates new account levels every six months and demotes the previous savings account offering, so you have to ask at six month intervals for the new account offering, or you don't get the current rates being offered by the other banks.

My mom is still with them, and over the years, they've bolloxed up some rather simple, but very important things like getting SSI numbers correct, names on the accounts correct, things that could be rather devastating and needing a lot of proof to reverse any account fiascos.

Just remember, "They're too big to fail" so I guess the incompetence is justified.

re. The last paragraph

BofA's Finger Print Collection

Bank of America's policy to collect biometric data is questionable at best. A few years back it was either left or right index finger, now it seems to be a thumb print. I understand their motive to cut down on fraudulent check cashing, but in my opinion it is not appropriate for them to get to a customer's finger print for free (it is valuable information that should cost them quite something), and they probably don't know how to handle this sensitive data with the required care (at least a few years back their personal was not able to provide information about what happens with their finger print collection and who has when access to it, etc.).

Shame on u BoA

The wonders of the corporate world

A classic piece of "cover your ass".

We all have to play the CYA game, and the larger the corp. you work for the more it has to be played.

I'd bet that there is some rule on BoA's books along the lines that any cheques cashed that turn out to be fraudulent have to have the costs paid by the teller who cashed the cheque. The teller is probably the most poorly paid employee who would be involved in the transaction too. If the teller sticks to the letter of the rules then they don't have anything to worry about, so that is what happened.

And of course, if you are disenchanted with your job - which I would be if I worked in a bank where the fat cats are getting huge bonuses whilst the rest of the economy appears to be going down the pan - then you will stick to the rules and hide behind an equivalent of "computer says no", without a care in the world as to the reputation of the business. And the reputation is worth a lot. One helluva lot. But it is an abstract concept and difficult to quantify, so the bean counters who don't understand that there are people in the world smarter than them just ignore reputation because there isn't a number for it to go into their beloved spreadsheets. And it's spreadsheets that drive corporate decision making.

Hell, I've been in a job where I got burnt out. When it happened that I had to enforce rules or policies or procedures that sucked, when the user complained I would simply refer them straight to the policy writer. Yeah, management types don't like that - they want the people in the trenches to take the flack. And this mentality is widespread - this is why so many companies have call centres that focus on apologising and keeping customers sweet with BS rather than actually helping the customer get a better deal than the competition are offering.

An outrage but...

Verification?

How would the bank have verified his identity even if he had given his thumbprint. Do they do some kind of check with the FBI (or somesuck body). If he hadn't an account there he might not have ever visited so it would be unlikely that the bank had his prints already to check against.

A bit hacked off indeed ;p

All I can say is

Me too!

WTF?

Why oh why under the good burnin' ball o'fusion would one have to produce a freakin' thumbprint to cash a check? What is *wrong* with these 'Mericans? And where is the creativity? If such inane insanity is demanded by company policy (fuck it), have him press whatever he has onto the paper. Like a toe, toes have prints. Or just the blunt stump of his birth-defected arms. If there was a gang of grifters out cashing in by the help of cripples, the bank would have been told so. This way, he can very likely sue due to discrimination, and I hope he does.

Anyway, here in good old continental Facististan I simply produce my nationally issued ID-CARD which is designed to keep the machinery of control via of labour and money in good working order.

Reminds me of a friend I had

BoA didn't have a leg to stand on.

They're prepared to let him open an account and pay the cheque in using the two photo-IDs but he couldn't cash the cheque with the same IDs? I suppose they could have argued that he would have to wait for the cheque to clear before he could withdraw the funds, but since electronic fund transfer allows the bank to take the funds from the payee immediately after reading into the bank's system (that's how long it takes to show when you check your balance at an ATM, after all), he shouldn't have had to wait too long... should he?